The competition was sponsored by Intel Corporation and hosted
by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School
of Business to promote the commercialization of technology
innovations that promise significant positive impact on industry
and society.

Harmonic Devices took the challenge’s grand prize
of $25,000 for its technology that delivers new levels of
component miniaturization, longer battery life, and lower
costs. For their initial target market of mobile phones and
other portable wireless handsets, Harmonic Devices will introduce
the world’s first silicon chip integrating radio-frequency
filters for multiple bands.

Two additional prizes of $7,500 each went to the two teams
from Singapore National University: BioMers and Infinity.

The top Technology Impact Prize went to BioMers, a medical
device company that manufactures the first orthodontic braces
that feature both translucent brackets and wires.

Infinity won the prize for Global Market Impact with a new
lens technology, FluidOptics™, that creates better
focusing and enhanced zoom features for ultra-compact size
electronics, including camera phones, compact digital cameras,
and camcorders.

“This competition brings together entrepreneurs from
around the world to learn from each other -- these teams
are all winners,” said Jerome Engel, executive director
of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. “In
joining forces with us, Intel recognized the unique setting
the Haas School and its Lester Center provide to promote
global innovation due to their excellence in both technology
and business innovation.”

The ten finalists in the challenge were selected as the
best technology-based ventures that resulted from five business
plan competitions around the world: the UC Berkeley Business
Plan Competition; the Business Innovation Technology competition,
a collaboration of six Russian universities; Tec de Monterrey's
Premio Intel competition in Mexico; National University of
Singapore's Start-Up@Singapore Enterprise Launcher; and Arizona
State University's Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge.

The finalist teams presented their technologies and business
plans to judges from the venture capital firms with global
reach – Partech International, Newbury Ventures, BlueRun
Ventures, Walden International, and Intel Capital. In addition
to cash prizes, visibility before potential funders is a
major reward for participating teams.

"Intel Capital's mission is to spur innovation worldwide
and to inspire the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive," said
Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital. "We are
excited to see the high level of dedication and technology
innovation demonstrated by the teams at this year's inaugural
competition. It is important that educators shift their focus
to an entrepreneurial culture that encourages technology
commercialization, especially since growth of the Internet
makes business opportunities more accessible to entrepreneurs
around the globe."

The technology for Harmonic Devices was developed by Gianluca
Piazza and
Philip Stephanou at the College of Engineering's Berkeley
Sensor and Actuator Center. Piazza is a recent Ph.D. graduate
in electrical engineering and assistant professor at University
of Pennsylvania; Stephanou is completing his Ph.D. in mechanical
engineering at UC Berkeley. The venture's management team
also consists of electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate Justin
Black and Berkeley MBA 2005 graduate Kenneth Miller.

The Harmonic Devices team also won the University of San
Francisco International Business Plan Competition in March
and the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition in May of 2005.